Flooding Lyth Valley, Cumbria, 2015
Floods have become more severe in northern Britain over the past 50 years, the new study has shown. Pictured above is the flooded Lyth Valley in Cumbria after Storm Desmond in December 2015.CEH, Centre for Ecology & Hydrology.

Climate Changing Flooding Behavior
"The impact of a changing climate on the severity of flooding has been demonstrated in the largest-scale study of its kind - with parts of northern Britain seeing the largest increase in Europe."

Deep Study
"...river flow data from thousands of locations over a 50-year period..."

"...analysing records from 3,738 flood measurement stations across Europe from the period 1960 to 2010."

Effects
"...flood events are becoming increasingly severe in north-western Europe, including the UK, but decreasing in severity in southern and Eastern Europe."

Climate-Driven Flooding Changes
"The change ranges from an 11 per cent increase in flood levels in northern England and southern Scotland to a 23 per cent reduction in parts of Russia, with the researchers saying their findings provide the clearest evidence yet, at the European scale, of the link between climate change and flooding."

South Europe
"In southern Europe, on the other hand, flood levels are decreasing, as climate change results in declining precipitation and the higher temperatures cause increased evaporation of water in the soil."

Flood Changes Match Warming
"...part of a continent-wide pattern of changes in flooding which is in line with what we may expect in a warming world."

Climate-Shifted Flood Timing and Magnitude
"We already knew that climate change is shifting the timing of floods in a year, but the key question had been, 'Does climate change also control the magnitude of flood events?'. Our study did in fact find there are consistent patterns of flood change across Europe and these are in line with predicted climate change impacts..."

"...climate change is having an impact on the magnitude of flood waters because a warmer atmosphere can store more water"

The Med
"...in Mediterranean areas, for small rivers floods may be becoming larger due to more frequent thunderstorms and land management changes such as deforestation."

East Europe
"In Eastern Europe, flood levels are also decreasing, which is due to shallower snow packs in winter associated with the higher temperatures."

Future Trends Expanded Flooding Risks
"If the trends in changing severity of flooding continue into the future, major increases in flood risk can be expected in many regions of Europe."

More Heat, Less Cold
"Climate change is increasing the number of days of extreme heat and decreasing the number of days of extreme cold in Europe..."

Hotter Summers, Colder Winters
"...the number of summer days with extreme heat has tripled since 1950 and summers have become hotter overall, while the number of winter days with extreme cold decreased in frequency by at least half and winters have become warmer overall."

"...results also showed that the region was warming faster than climate models projected. Some regions experienced higher extremes than expected and some had lower extremes that expected."

“In the Netherlands, Belgium, France, the model trends are about two times lower than the observed trends. We’re reaching new records faster than you’d expect.”

Not Natural
"...these trends are much larger than what we would expect from natural variability. That’s really a signal from climate change..."

Extreme Changes More than Models Predict
"...the number of extreme heat days in Europe has tripled since 1950, while the number of extreme cold days decreased by factors of two or three depending on the region."

Hotter Hots, Hotter Colds
"Extremely hot days have become hotter by an average of 2.30 degrees Celsius (4.14 degrees Fahrenheit), while extremely cold days have warmed by 3.0 degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) on average. The hottest days and coldest nights warmed significantly more than their corresponding summer and winter mean temperatures."

Grim Future
"European summers and winters will only grow hotter in the coming years as climate change accelerates, impacting cities and people unprepared for rising temperatures."

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